If your family is like most, the dining room is the hub of your home. Between meals, snacks, entertaining, board games, and homework, your dining room probably sees a lot of traffic. When you spend this much time in a room, it’s important to create an environment that is comfortable and inviting. If you’re ready for a dining room do-over, these trending interior design tips will get you off to a good start.

1. Choosing a table and chairs – There are a lot of things to consider when you choose a dining room set. First of all, you have to think about the space you have available and what will comfortable fit. You should also consider the size of your family and how often you have people over for meals. After years of darker woods being the most popular choice, blonde hues have made a comeback. These lighter woods are more friendly than formal, and they tend to look nice with nearly every style of decor or color scheme.

2. A Place for Everything – Whether you prefer the look of a hutch, a buffet, a side table, or open shelving, having storage space in your dining room is essential. It’s much more convenient to have a place to keep dishes, napkins, and serving ware in the room where you’ll be eating, rather than dragging everything out from the kitchen. If your dining room is large enough to accommodate it, many families also incorporate storage space for board games, art supplies, or anything else that gets used in group activities around the table.Read more

Design trends come and go, but there is one constant in the world of home decorating; family heirlooms never go out of fashion. Nothing personalizes a home like the items that are passed down from generation to generation. The things that are unique to your family will be cherished for as long as they exist.

There are many ways to incorporate the old with the new. In fact, a mix of modern decor and older pieces usually blend beautifully, creating a more interesting look than opting entirely for one or the other. Don’t be afraid to blend furnishings and accessories from different time periods. It creates depth and personality that is lacking in rooms that look like everything in them was ordered from the same catalog.

Common Family Heirlooms That Look Great in Any Room

1. Old Photographs – Your family photographs are one of a kind and irreplaceable. Rather than tucking them away in photo albums where they’ll rarely be seen, display them out in the open and enjoy them on a regular basis. Not only will you and your family members love seeing them, friends and acquaintances will, too. The first time you visit someone’s home, is there anything that captivates and catches your attention quite as much as a wall of black and white pictures?Read more

You’re a music aficionado. You’ll listen to music in whatever form is available, but your deepest affection is reserved solely for records. You love everything about LPs, and your record player is your pride and joy. In fact, it claims a prominent space in your living room. You’d never dream of stuffing it in a closet where you couldn’t see it or play it without a hassle. But how do you store your records? If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve got them tucked away in a cabinet, out of sight behind closed doors. Why is that? Don’t you love looking at album covers almost as much as you love listening to their contents?

Keeping your records hidden away might make dusting easier, but if you’ve been viewing your collection as clutter, you might want to take a closer look! Not only does storing your records out in the open make them more accessible, and thus, more likely to be played, a lot of the cover designs are incredible! Whether they’re showcasing artwork or a photograph of the band, they drum up nostalgia like nothing else.

Here are some great ideas for bringing your records out into the open without feeling like you’re making a mess instead of a decorating statement. It’s also worth noting that along with these ideas, you should skim sites like Etsy, where LP loving artists are constantly coming up with new and ingenious ways to display your tunes.Read more

Feeling crafty? Painted furniture opens up a world of possibilities in home decorating on a budget. You can create one of a kind looks for a fraction of the cost of buying new furniture. If you’re up for a fun and easy Do It Yourself project, here are some great reasons to break out the paint. If you don’t consider yourself an artist, have no fear; you don’t have to be the next Picasso to pull off painting your own furniture.

Older children and teenagers are usually capable of painting a piece of furniture they’ll be proud of, so let them have some ownership in creating a unique look for their bedroom. It makes a great family activity that everyone can enjoy. Just remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be spectacular, relax, and go with the flow.

1. Spruce up the furniture you already have – What do you do when you’ve grown tired of your furniture, but it’s still completely functional? Breathing new life into your old furniture is easier on your wallet and the environment. If you’re totally bored with your furniture, a few coats of paint can give it a brand new look you’ll love.Read more

Posters have changed a lot since the days when they were relegated to children’s bedroom, dorms, and classrooms. Gone are the days when poster art meant cartoon characters, scantily clad girls leaning on sports cars, and motivational slogans and charts. Of course, those are still readily available, if that’s your thing, but the options have opened up tremendously.

Posters have been steadily gaining in popularity, and why not? They’re inexpensive, and some of them look every bit as good as a much more costly piece of artwork. There are literally hundreds of thousands of options available, so you’re sure to find some that suit your style. Here are some of the hottest trends in poster art:

1. Vintage Posters – Everything old is new again. If you want to keep up with the latest trends, one of the easiest ways to do it is by going retro. Whether you love old advertisements, musicians, or movies, you can’t go wrong. Choose posters that are actually vintage, or find reproductions of old favorites.Read more